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ADDITIONAL  NOTES  ON  ARROW 
RELEASE 


By  EDWARD  S.  MORSE 


'W  ^ 


/A' 


PEABODY    MUSEUM 

Salem,  Massachusetts 

1922 


23 


ADDITIONAL  NOTES  ON  ARROW 
RELEASE 


With  the  compliments  of 


THE  TRUSTEES  OF  THE  PEABODY  MUSEUM 


Salem,  Massachusetts 


PEABODY     MUSEUM 

Salem,  Massachusetts 
1922 


ADDITIONAL  NOTES  ON  ARROW 
RELEASE 


By  EDWARD  S.  MORSE 


PEA  BODY     MUSEUM 

Salem,  Massachusetts 

1922 


Hi 


PRINTED     BY 

Sl^e  ^JtrholB  Press 

113  Market  St.,  Lynn.  Mass. 


Anthropologx 
Add  to  Ilb,^ 

GIFT 


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ADDITIONAL  NOTES   ON   ARROW  RELEASE 


Edward  S.  Morse 


In  1885  I  published,  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Essex  Institute,  a 
paper  entitled  "Ancient  and  Modern  Methods  of  Arrow  Release." 
From  the  difficulty  I  found  in  ascertaining  the  various  attitudes  of  the 
hand  in  drawing  the  bow  I  began  to  realize  that  no  one  had  made  a 
study  of  the  subject  and  that  I  had  made  a  discovery.  Prof.  E.  B. 
Tylor,  the  distinguised  author  of  "Prehistoric  Times,"  in  acknowledg- 
ing the  receipt  of  a  copy  of  my  paper,  wrote  me  as  follows:  "  It  is  won- 
derful how  much  there  is  to  be  learned  by  close  examination  into  points 
that  at  first  sight  do  not  seem  as  if  they  wanted  any.  I  had  no  idea 
till  I  looked  at  your  sketches  that  there  were  systematic  differences 
among  peoples  in  their  way  of  discharging  their  arrows."*  The  main 
facts,  with  their  illustrations,  quickly  appeared  in  Russian,  German, 
Dutch  and  French  reviews  and  were  republished  in  England  and  start- 
ed a  number  of  investigators  on  the  subject.  In  the  Memoir,  which 
has  been  out  of  print  for  some  years  I  asked  for  information  on  the 
subject  particularly  concerning  savage  people,  as  I  regarded  my  work 
as  only  a  preliminary  outhne  of  the  subject.     As  a  result  of  this  appeal 


*In  the  Badminton  Library.  Archery,  C.  J.  Longman,  Esq.,  says  (p.  76)  "In 
discussing  methods  of  drawing  the  bow  occasion  will  frequently  arise  to  refer  to  the 
pamphlet  by  Prof.  Morse,  as  he  w^as  the  first  to  investigate  the  subject.  His  researches 
on  a  seemingly  trivial  matter  have  a  high  ethnographic  interest,  and  his  classification 
is  so  sound  that  it  must  form  the  basis  of  any  further  researches  on  the  subject." 

1 


437 


I  received  many  items  and  sketches  from  all  parts  of  the  world  and 
now,  nearly  thirty-five  years  after,  I  have  compiled  this  information 
and  the  present  paper  is  the  result. 

Before  proceeding  further  I  venture  at  this  point  to  republish  a 
few  figures  illustrating  the  five  forms  of  arrow  release t  given  in  my  first 
paper  on  the  subject  which  has  long  been  out  of  print. 


PRIMARY   RELEASE 

Fig.   1 

I  found  the  simplest  form  of  release  was  that  which  the  children 
of  all  nations  use  the  world  over:  that  is  in  grasping  the  arrow  with 
the  thumb  and  bent  forefinger.  I  have  seen  the  children  of  Ameri- 
cans, Indians,  Chinese,  Japanese  and  Negroes  play  with  a  toy  bow  and 
arrow  and  they  all  invariably  grasp  the  arrow  with  the  thumb  and 
bent  forefinger.  It  was  interesting  to  discover  that  some  of  the  lower 
savage  races,  like  the  Ainu,  practice  this  release.  The  arrow  accom- 
panying this  release  is  generally  knobbed  at  the  nock  end  and  is 
gashed  or  roughened  to  secure  a  firmer  pinch  on  the  arrow.  This  I 
termed  the  primary  release. 


fThe  English  archer  prefers  the  word  "loofe"  to  release.  Release  seems  to  me 
a  better  word  for  we  release  a  prisoner;  we  speak  of  a  loose  button,  a  loose  hinge,  some- 
thing that  is  still  there,  like  a  loose  tooth. 


SECONDARY  RELEASE 

Fig.  2 

In  another  and  higher  group  of  savages  such  as  the  Pueblo  Ind- 
ians, the  arrow  is  not  only  grasped  by  the  thumb  and  bent  fore- 
finger but  the  second  and  third  fingers  are  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
string,  thus  enabling  the  archer  to  use  a  stronger  bow.  This  I  termed 
the  secondary  release. 


TERTIARY  RELEASE 

Fig.  3 

A  third  form  of  release  I  determined  through  the  courtesy  of 
Mr.  Le  Flesche,  an  educated  Omaha  Indian.  This  release  con- 
sisted in  holding  the  forefinger  nearly  straight  and  not  bent  as  in 
the  primary  and  secondary  releases  and  with  the  tips  of  this  finger 
and  the  tips  of  the  second  and  third  fingers  pulling  the  string,  the 
arrow  being  held  between  the  tips  of  the  thumb  and  forefinger.     This 


form  I  termed  the  tertiary  release  and  found  it  wide  spread.  From 
the  testimony  of  Lieut.  Vogdes,  U.  S.  A.  and  Col.  James  Ste- 
phenson, this  was  the  form  of  release  used  by  the  Sioux,  Arapahoes, 
Cheyennes,  Assiniboins,  Comanches,  Blackfeet  and  Navahoes  and 
doubtless  other  North  American  tribes. 

C.  J.  Longman,  Esq.,  in  his  interesting  and  valuable  contribu- 
tions to  the  Archery  volume  of  the  Badminton  Library  Series,  does 
not  recognize  this  release  and  classifies  it  with  the  secondary  form 
and  says,  "It  seems  doubtful,  however  whether  there  is  sufficient 
distinction  between  the  secondary  and  tertiary  looses  to  justify  their 
separation,  and  all  finger  and  thumb  looses,  when  the  tips  of  the  fin- 
gers assist  in  drawing  the  string  will  be  classed  here  as  secondary." 
I  cannot  agree  with  my  distinguished  friend,  for  further  study  shows 
that  it  is  a  marked  North  American  method.  A  study  of  West  Coast 
Indians,  Mexican  tribes,  Surinam  Indians,  and  even  the  figures  in 
ancient  Mexican  codices,  tracings  of  which  I  have  received  from  that 
eminent  scholar  Mrs.  Zelia  Nuttall,  convinces  me  that  the  tertiary 
release  was  employed  by  these  ancient  people.  It  is  found  sporadically 
in  other  parts  of  the  world. 


MEDITERRANEAN    RELEASE 

Fig.  4 

The  archers  of  Europe  shooting  only  for  sport  use  a  release  that 
I  have  named  the  Mediterranean  release  because  I  discovered  that 


the  Mediterranean  nations  —  the  Caucasians  of  Blumenbach  —  for 
nearly  2000  years  have  used  this  release.*  Even  the  ancient  relatives 
of  this  race,  the  Hill  tribes  of  India,  practice  it.  It  consists  in  draw- 
ing the  string  with  the  tips  of  the  first,  second  and  third  fingers;  the 
thumb  is  inert  and  the  little  finger  is  rarely  used.  Pictures  and  en- 
gravings of  the  17th  century  and  before  depict  the  archer  as  using 
the  first  and  second  finger  only.  This  indicates  either  greater 
strength  or  a  lighter  bow.  This  release,  as  practiced  today  requires 
either  a  glove  or  finger  tips  of  leather  to  protect  the  ends  of  the 
fingers. 


MONGOLIAN   RELEASE 

Fig.  5 

The  Asiatic  races  employ  a  method  far  removed  from  those 
forms  already  mentioned.  The  string  is  drawn  back  by  the  thumb 
which  is  sharply  bent  over  it,  while  the  forefinger  is  bent  over  the  tip 
of  the  thumb  to  aid  in  holding  it.  The  arrow  is  held  in  the  junction 
of  the  forefinger  and  thumb.    This  method  of  release  necessitates 


*Harold  H.  Bender,  Professor  of  Indo-Germanic  Philology  at  Princeton  Uni- 
versity has  lately  published  an  extremely  illuminating  book,  entitled  "The  Home  of 
the  Indo-European."  He  gives  good  reasons  for  believing  that  the  term  Indo- 
European  is  preferable  to  that  of  Aryan  or  Mediterranean.  The  term  Caucasian  of 
Blumenbach  is,  of  course,  nearly  obsolete. 


the  wearing  of  a  stout  thumb-ring  made  of  bone,  horn,  jade  or  metal, 
the  edge  of  the  ring  engaging  the  string.  All  the  Asiatic  races  with- 
out exception  use  this  realese;  the  Mongols,  Manchus,  Tibetans,  Ko- 
reans and  Turks  use  this  release  with  various  forms  of  thurrb  rings, 
the  Japanese  using  a  glove  with  a  grooved  thumb.  Even  the  Per- 
sians, who  are  not  Mongoloid,  have  acquired  this  release  from  being 
interposed  between  Mongoloid  people  on  the  east  and  west. 

In  attempting  to  make  out  from  ancient  drawings,  such  as  those 
on  Greek  vases,  the  attitude  of  the  hand  in  drawing  the  bow  the  great 
difficulty  arises  from  the  fact  that  in  many  cases  the  artist  was  not 
an  archer,  and,  furthermore,  so  long  as  the  bow  was  stretched  no  atten- 
tion was  paid  to  the  attitude  of  the  hand  in  stretching  it.  When  I 
began  the  study  I  was  amazed  at  the  inability  of  travelers  to  recall 
the  method  of  arrow  release,  though  they  admitted  they  had  seen 
the  savages  shoot  a  hundred  times.  I  recall  a  striking  illustration 
of  this  in  the  case  of  my  friend,  Frank  Hamilton  Gushing,  who  had 
lived  among  the  Zuni  Indians  for  several  years.  He  brought  to  Bos- 
ton many  years  ago  a  number  of  Zuni  Indians  who  were  hospitably 
entertained  by  Mrs.  Mary  Hemenway  at  her  summer  home  in  Man- 
chester. I  was  invited  to  spend  the  day  with  them.  I  asked  Mr. 
Gushing  the  method  the  Zuni  used  in  shooting  the  arrow.  He 
looked  at  me  vaguely  and  said,  "Why,  I  have  shot  with  them  a  thou- 
sand times,  isn't  it  this  way?"  pushing  a  lead  pencil  between  the  thumb 
and  bent  forefinger.  I  told  him  that  was  the  lowest  form  of  release 
and  as  the  Zuni  are  Pueblo  Indians  I  thought  they  must  use  the  second- 
ary release,  that  is  beside  the  thumb  and  bent  forefinger  on  the  arrow, 
the  second  and  third  finger  assisted  in  drawing  the  string.  He  imme- 
diately constructed  a  bow  from  a  stick,  made  a  rude  arrow,  strung  the 
stick  and  invited  one  of  the  chiefs  to  illustrate  the  Zuni  method  of 
drawing  the  bow.  We  eagerly  watched  the  hand  as  he  drew  the 
string  and  the  attitude  of  his  fingers  was  precisely  as  I  had  predicted. 
Mr.  Gushing  gave  me  a  hearty  slap  on  the  shoulder  while  ejaculating 
"Spl  —  endid!"  Nowhere  was  an  acute  observer  who  had  lived 
and  shot  with  the  Zuni  and  yet  had  failed  to  observe  the  simple  atti- 


tude  of  the  hand  in  shooting.  What  must  it  have  been  with  the 
ancient  artists  and  sculptors,  many  of  whom  had  never  shot  an  arrow! 
The  infinite  variety  of  drawings  on  Greek  vases  of  archers  drawing 
the  bow  is  sufficient  evidence  of  their  incompetency  in  regard  to  por- 
traying the  attitude  of  the  hand  in  archery.  In  ancient  rock  sculpture 
the  wear  and  tear  of  age  render  the  details  indistinct,  the  position 
of  the  fingers  on  the  bow  string  is  often  obscure.  These  conditions 
coupled  with  the  inaccuracy  of  the  sculptor  render  these  details  unre- 
liable. The  general  attitude  of  the  hand,  however,  can  be  recognized. 
In  all  the  releases  except  the  Mongolian  the  attitude  of  the  hand  as  a 
whole  can  usually  be  seen  and  it  assumes  the  form  of  a  more  or  less 
closed  fist.  In  the  Mongolian  release,  however,  the  attitude  of  the 
hand  is  with  fingers  bending  downward  at  right  angles  to  the  back  of 
the  hand  which  is  uppermost. 

In  my  first  memoir  I  expressed  the  belief  that  the  different  releases 
characterized  different  races  and  that  is  more  or  less  true.  I  find 
that  these  lines  are  not  hard  and  fast,  however,  as  I  had  at  first  sup- 
posed but  that  here  and  there  savage  people  the  world  over  practice 
a  release  which  I  associated  with  the  higher  races,  namely,  the  Mediter- 
ranean. Even  the  Mongolian  release,  the  most  exclusive  of  them 
all,  is  found  m  Africa  in  which  not  only  the  thumb-ring  is  used  but 
also  an  extraordinary  device  in  the  form  of  a  yoke  of  wood  grasped 
in  the  hand  and  first  described  by  Dr.  Felix  von  Luschan.  Further 
reference  to  his  discovery  will  be  made. 

In  my  first  paper  I  tried  in  vain  to  find  the  method  of  release 
among  the  Indians  who  were  common  in  New  England  in  the  early 
part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  I  had  secured  the  Penobscot  and 
Micmac  release  and  this  was  the  primary  form.  In  1865  the  Prince 
Society  of  Boston  reproduced  a  rare  book  entitled  "Wood's  New- 
England's  Prospect,"  by  William  Wood,  published  in  London  in  1634, 
copies  of  which  are  of  great  rarity.  In  the  Prince  Society  reproduction 
the  quaint  and  original  spelling  is  carefully  preserved.  William  Wood 
was  evidently  a  gentleman  and  a  scholar,  Latin  phrases  often  occur. 
The  author  was  a  keen  observer.     He  notices  what  few  travelers  do, 


the  attitude  of  the  hand  of  the  savage  in  drawing  the  bow.  The  fol- 
lowing extract  describes  very  clearly  that  the  Indians  in  New  England 
employed  the  primary  release.  "For  their  shooting  they  be  most 
desperate  marksmen  for  a  point  blancke  object,  and  if  it  may  bee  possible 
Cornicum  oculos  configere  they  will  doe  it:  such  is  their  celerity  and 
dexterity  in  Artillerie,  that  they  can  smite  the  swift  running  Hinde 
and  nimble  winked  Pigeon  without  a  standing  pause  or  left  eyed 
blinking;  they  draw  their  Arrowes  between  the  forefingers  and  the 
thumbe;  their  bowes  be  quicke,  but  not  very  strong,  not  killing  above 
six  or  seven  score",     (p.  97) 


Fig.  6    Micmac 

I  am  indebted  to  Dr.  S.  J.  Mixter  for  a  photograph  of  a  Micmac 
Indian  who  illustrated  to  him  the  method  of  drawing  the  arrow.  It 
shows  the  typical  primary  release.  (Fig.  6.)  The  Indian  was  one  of 
the  oldest  Micmacs  in  the  Cascapedia  settlement  in  Canada.     He 


8 


told  Dr.  Mixter  that  other  tribes  in  Canada  used  the  same  method 
and  he  knew  of  no  other.  These  facts  I  mentioned  in  my  first  paper 
but  the  figure  which  was  not  pubUshed  at  that  time  is  now  given. 
In  a  supplement  to  the  Intematmial  Archieves  of  Ethnology, 
Vol.  XVII,  is  a  memoir  by  Dr.  C.  H.  DeGoeje,  on  the  "Ethnology 
of  The  Surinam  Indians."  A  large  number  of  arrows  are  figured 
and  these  have  a  raised  ring  of  fibre  at  their  nock  ends  indicating  the 
primary  release. 


/       J 


Fig.  7     Tierra  del  Fuego 

The  Ona  tribe  of  Tierra  del  Fuego  practiced  the  primary  release 
and  also  the  tertiary  release  as  show  in  the  illustrations  of  these  sav- 
ages in  a  book  entitled,  "Through  the  First  Antarctic  Night",  by 
Frederick  A.  Cook,  M.  D.  Figure  7  is  a  rough  copy  of  one  of  the 
illustrations  in  the  book. 


In  the  British  Museum  is  an  arrow  from  Tierra  Del  Fuego,  col- 
lected by  Mr.  H.  N.  Moseley  in  1876.  This  arrow  is  27K  inches 
long.  It  has  two  short  and  wide  barbs  parallel  to  the  nock.  A  shoulder 
of  fibre  and  gum  near  the  nock  would  indicate  the  primary  release. 
(Fig.  8.) 


Fig.  8     Tierra  del  Fuego 


From  photographs  shown  me  at  the  Hamburg  Museum  of  natives 
of  the  Solomon  Islands  in  the  act  of  shooting  the  method  of  release  was 
primary. 

At  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1889  were  many  negroes  from  the 
French  Protectorates,  Africa.  Among  these  were  negroes  from  Sene- 
gal and  from  them  I  got  their  method  of  release  which  was  primary, 
the  how  was  held  nearly  horizontal. 

In  Sir  Samuel  Baker's  book,  "Albert  Nyanza,"  Page  63,  is  the  fol- 
lowing description  of  the  archery  of  the  Africans  of  that  region.  '  *  Fort- 
unately the  natives  are  bad  archers the  string  is  never  drawn 

with  the  two  forefingers  as  in  most  countries,  but  is  simply  pulled  by 
holding  the  arrow  between  the  middle  joint  of  the  forefinger  and 
thumb."     This   clear   description   indicates   the   primary   release. 

I  am  greatly  indebted  to  Mr.  Kimpei  Otsu,  Chief  of  the  Aboriginal 
Bureau  of  Formosa  and  to  Mr.  S.  Ishii,  of  Kaihoku,  of  Formosa, 
for  a  number  of  interesting  photographs  representing  the  savages  of 
that  Island  in  the  act  of  drawing  the  bow.  Seven  of  these  photo- 
graphs represent  members  of  the  Vonum  tribe  of  various  villages. 

10 


These  are  indicated  as  domesticated  savages,  all  of  these  but  one 
are  using  the  primary  release.  (Fig.  9.)  The  one  exception  is  draw- 
ing the  arrow  with  the  left  hand  and  all  four  fingers  are  bent  over  the 
string  suggesting  a  modification  of  the  tertiary  release.  Two  others 
are  marked  head-hunters  belonging  to  the  Taiyal,  or  tattooed  tribe. 
These  are  also  practicing  the  primary  release. 


Fig.  9    Formosa 

In  the  Trocadero  Museimi,  in  Paris,  is  a  curious  arrow  from 
Formosa  made  by  the  savage  Botans.    The  nock  end  is  cut  in  long 

11 


shallow  gashes  giving  a  firmer  grip  of  the  thumb  and  forefinger.  This 
form  indicates  the  use  of  the  primary  release.     (Fig.   10.) 

In  using  the  primary  release,  as  I  have  already  shown,  the  arrow 
is  usually  knobbed  or  the  nock  end  of  the  arrow  where  the  thumb 

and  finger  grasp  it  is  roughened  by 
slight  cuts,  or  gashes  to  ensure  a 
stronger  hold  on  the  arrow. 

In    studying    the    remarkable 
collection  of    Danish  antiquities  in 
the  Museum  of  Northern  Antiqui- 
Fig.  10    Formosa  ties,    at  Copenhagen,  we    found  an 

exhaustive  collection  of  objects  from  the  peat  begs  of  Denmark.  So 
abundant  are  these  remains  that  Steenstrup  estimated  that  every 
column  of  peat,  three  feet  square  at  the  surface,  would  yield  some 
evidence  of  human  workmanship.  In  the  collection  were  a  num.ber 
of  long  bows,  round  in  section,  with  a  slight  notch  at  either  end.  These 
bows  with  their  arrows  were  mounted  on  tablets  and  were  believed 
to  be  about  2000  years  old.  The  arrows  were  of  special  interest, 
they  were  rather  thick  and '  clumsily  made  but  the  constriction  of 


Fig.  1 1     Peat  bogs,  Denmark 

the  shaft  before  reaching  the  nock  end  was  very  noticeable.  Of 
great  interest  to  me  was  the  fact  that  every  arrow  was  distinctly 
knobbed  ard  enlarged  at  the  nock  end,  (Fig.  11)  showing  that  these 
ancient  people  had  not  acquired  the  Mediterranean  release  which 
would  have  been  difficult  with  this  form  of  arrow.  They  were  using 
the  primary  release  of  their  savage  ancestors.     Mr.  Vilhelm  Boye, 

12 


an  officer  of  the  Museum,  told  me  that  the  arrows  had  only  two  barbs. 
No  trace  of  the  barbs  were  seen,  though  a  close  examination  with 
the  poor  light  at  the  time  showed  that  the  nock  end  of  the  arrow  had 
been  wound  with  a  fibre  of  some  kind. 

At  the  Kiel  Museum  there  was  a  fine  collection  of  peat  bog  relics 
from  Schleswig.  Here  also  I  was  permitted  to  make  sketches  of  arrows, 

all  of  which  showed  the  same  enlarge- 
ment of  the  nock  end,  though  quite 
different  in  shape  from  the  Danish  forms, 
indicating  the  same  method  of  release, 
namely,  the  primary.  (Fig  12.)  Their 
age  dated  from  217  A.  D.,  as  determined 
Fig.  12  Schleswig  by  coins  associated  with  them. 
In  Figure  13,  I  give  rough  tracings  of  the  nock  ends  of  the  arrows 
of  various  tribes  of  North  American  Indians,  all  showing  enlarge- 
ment of  the  nock  ends  of  the  arrows,  indicating  the  use  of  the  primary 
release.  In  some  cases  the  knobbed  arrow  might  indicate  the  use 
of  the  secondary  release  but  in  that  release  with  the  use  of  two  extra 


Fig.  13     North  American  Indians 

Angers  in  pulling  the  bow  the  enlargement  of  the  arrow  was  not  so 
necessary. 

Figure  14  illustrates  in  a  marked  degree  the  use  of  the  primary 
release.  It  represents  an  arrow  used  by  the  Thlingit  tribe  of  Alaska. 
It  was  collected  by  Lieut.  G.  T.  Emmons,  U.  S.  A.  and  is  in  the  col- 
lection of  the  U.  S.  National  Museum.  It  is  interesting  as  showing 
that  these  people  in  close  proximity  to  the  Eskimo  who  used  the  Medi- 


13 


terranean  release  had  never  acquired  the  more  powerful  form  but 
retained  the  primary  form.  A  parallel  case  is  shown  by  the  Ainu 
method  of  drawing  the  bow.  Though  associated  with  the  Japanese 
for  nearly  2000  years  they  had  never  acquired  the  more  effective 
Mongolian  release  but  adhered  to  the  primary  form. 


Fig.  14    Alaska 

Prof.  E.  N.  Horsford  informed  me  that  when  he  was  a  boy  his 
father  was  a  missionary  among  the  Seneca  Indians  in  New  York. 
He  often  played  and  shot  with  the  Indian  boys,  the  target  generally 
consisting  of  a  big  copper  cent  held  in  a  cleft  stick.  The  practice 
of  drawing  the  bow  was  with  the  thumb  and  bent  forefinger  pinching 
the  arrow  and  two  other  fingers  assisting  in  drawing  the  string,  a 
distinct  secondary  release. 

Lieut.  Schawatka,  an  arctic  explorer,  who  had  traveled  in 
Mexico  told  me  that  the  Baramos  Indians,  a  tribe  of  the  Tarahumari, 
living  in  southwestern  Chihuahua  practiced  the  secondary  release. 

The  Menomini  Indians  who  now  live  on  their  reservation  in 
north  central  Wisconsin  have  been  minutely  studied  by  Mr.  Alanson 
Skinner  and  the  results  form  a  monograph  in  the  publications  of  the 
Museum  of  the  American  Indian,  Heye  Foundation.  The  Indians  are 
typical  Algonquin  people  and  Mr.  Skinner  states  that  they  use  the 
tertiary  release  while  the  neighboring  Ojibwa  use  the  primary  and 
secondary  releases. 

14 


In  an  interesting  article  by  Carl  Litmholtz,  in  Scribnefs  Maga- 
zine, Vol.  XIV,  1894,  entitled  "Tarahumari  Dances  and  Plant  Wor- 
ship," he  gives  a  picture  of  an  Indian  using  the  bow.  The  method  of 
release  is  clearly  depicted  and  represents  the  tertiary  release.  Tracings 
of  figures  in  certain  ancient  Mexican  codices  sent  me  by  Mrs.  Zelia 
NUTTALL  represent  the  tertiary  release. 

Prof.  W.  Joest,  of  Berlin,  kindly  sent  me  some  observations  he 
made  regarding  the  arrow  release  of  indians  and  bush  negroes  of  Sur- 
inam. In  his  letter  he  makes  the  distinction  between  the  Arawaks, 
Caribs,  and  Galibes  of  the  coast  and  interior  of  Surinam  and  of  the  Upper 
Maroni  which  he  calls  indians,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Surinam  and  the 
Upper  Maroni  which  he  designates  as  bush  negroes.  They  no  longer  use 
arrows  and  bows  as  weapons,  but  only  for  shooting  fish,  small  deer, 
turtle,  tapir,  birds,  etc.  He  says:  " I  observed  a  remarkable  difference 
between  Indians  and  'Bosch.'  The  American  aborigine,  Arawaks,  as 
well  as  Caribs,  keep  the  bow  horizontally,  the  'Bosch,'  whose  ances- 
tors were  imported  from  Africa,  vertically.  Both  put  the  arrow  at 
the  upper  or  left  side  of  the  bow ;  both  keep  the  arrow  steady  with  the 
forefinger  of  the  left  hand,  the  palm  of  course  undermost.  The  way 
of  pulling  corresponds  to  your  'tertiary  release'  with  the  difference 
that  Indians  and  Bush  negroes  use  all  their  four  fingers  while  the 
thumb  (Stretched)  helps  the  forefinger.  The  forefinger  is  nearly 
straight.  I  had  the  impression  that  the  forefinger  and  thumb  were 
only  keeping  the  arrow  in  its  position  whilst  the  3rd,  4th  and  5th  fingers 
were  really  pulling."  He  found  an  astonishing  number  of  the  Bush 
negroes  were  left-handed.  They  accordingly  put  the  arrow  at  the 
right  side  of  the  bow.  He  thinks  no  difference  exists  between  the 
natives  of  Guyara  in  the  method  of  release. 

Dr.  Thomas  Barbour,  in  his  travels  in  New  Guinea,  secured  a 
photograph  of  a  Papuan  in  the  act  of  shooting  the  bow.  The  release 
is  with  the  thumb  pressed  against  the  arrow  and  all  four  fingers  bearing 
on  the  string,  the  arrow  being  between  the  thumb  and  forefinger. 
This  represents  the  tertiary  release.  This  release  varies  as  does  the 
Mediterranean  form.     In  both  releases  two,   three  and   even   four 

15 


fingers  may  be  used  in  drawing  the  string,  though  rarely  is  the  little 
finger  used.     (Fig.  15). 

Felix  Speiser  in  his  "Two  Years  with  the  Natives  in  the  Western 
Pacific"  represents  the  arrow  release  of  the  natives  of  Santa  Cruz,  an 
island  between  the  Solomon  Islands  and  the  New  Hebrides.  Figures 
of  two  men  are  given  in  the  act  of  drawing  the  bow,  the  attitude  of  the 
fingers  on  the  string  is  given  in  the  clearest  manner  and  represents  the 
tertiary  release.  The  middle  finger  is  slightly  overlapping  the  fore- 
finger. 


Fig.  15     Papuan 


From  a  photograph  in  the  Ethnological  Museum  at  Berlin  1 
copied  the  arrow  release  of  the  Kaders  of  India.  The  Kaders  are  a 
primitive  tribe  living  among  the  Ammali  Hills,  north  of  Tiruwanduram 
on  the  western  side  of  India.  It  resembles  somewhat  the  release  of 
the  Bakuba  and  Basonge  people  of  Africa  brought  back  by  Lieut. 
WissMANN.  The  four  fingers  are  over  the  string,  the  forefinger  slightly 
flexed  and  pressing  the  arrow  against  the  bow,  the  thumb  inactive. 
It  must  be  classed  with  the  tertiary  release.  (Fig.  16.)  The  Kaders 
used  a  heavy  bow,  the  arrows  are  iron-pointed  and  four-barbed. 

16 


Prof.  F.  W.  Williams,  of  Yale,  when  he  was  in  Rangoon,  Burma, 
sent  me  a  postal  card  on  which  was  depicted  an  archer  shooting  a 
bow,  the  forefinger  was  extended  along  the  arrow  while  the  other  three 
fingers  were  flexed  over  the  string.  It  may  be  regarded  as  a  slight 
modification  of  the  tertiary  release.  Mr.  Williams  writes:  "Here 
is  an  arrow  release  that  appears  to  be  the  real  thing,  but  I  have  yet 
to  see  one  of  the  natives  shoot.  The  picture  is  lettered  "A  Burmese 
Villager." 

Dr.  Karl  von  den  Steinen, 
in  his  work  on  "The  Savages  of 
Central  Brazil"  says;  (p.  230) 
"The  bow  is  generally  held  down- 
ward. The  arrow  lies  to  the  left 
of  the  bow.  It  is  held  by  the 
second  and  third  fingers,  while  the 
fourth  and  fifth  fingers  help  to 
steady  the  cord  for  the  aim,  the 
thumb  is  not  used  at  all.  This 
way  of  holding  the  bow  and  arrow  which  is  used  in  the  Middle  Sea,  of 
which  E.  S.  Morse  speaks  is  different  from  that  of  the  Bororo.  Any 
contrivance  to  keep  the  fingers  from  being  rubbed  by  the  cord 
is  not  used.  The  left  hand  which  holds  the  bow  can  hold  a  number 
of  arrows  in  reserve."  The  release  is  typically  tertiary.  (Fig.  17). 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  Mr.  Steinen  and  he  told  me  that  he 
explored  a  new  region  in  Brazil  which  had  never  reached  the  Age  of 
Iron. 

At  the  Ethnological  Museum,  in  Amsterdam,  I  learned  that  the 
Javanese  practice  the  tertiary  release  using  the  index  finger  only,  a 
weak  method  and  implying  the  use  of  the  lightest  of  bows.  The 
nock  of  the  arrow  is  very  deep  and  narrow  indicating  a  light  string. 
The  bow  had  a  heavy  thickening  in  the  middle,  deeply  grooved  for 
four  fingers,  and  was  covered  with  black  velvet;  an  effeminate  bow 
and  probably  used  by  women.  In  the  Copenhagen  Museum  I  saw 
an  arrow  from  Java  with  nock  shallow  and  flaring. 


Fig.  16     Kader,  India 


17 


In  1889  I  met  at  the  Ethnological  Museum  in  Berlin,  Lieut. 
WissMANN  and  Dr.  Ludwig  Wolf,  recently  returned  from  the  interior 
of  Africa  with  valuable  collections  of  ethnological  material  and  they 
assured  me  that  the  Bakuba  people  and  the  Basonge  people,  in  Cen- 
tral Africa  used  a  release,  which  represented  a  slight  modification  of 
the  tertiary  release.    The  bow  is  held  vertical,  the  forefinger  presses 


Fig.  17     Bororo,  Brazil 

the  arrow  against  the  bow,  the  arrow  being  on  the  right  side  of  the 
bow.  The  bow  is  strong  and  the  arrow  beautifully  made  having 
three  barbs.  Lieut.  Wissmann  told  me  that  in  shooting,  the  archer 
first  points  the  arrow  to  the  ground  in  drawing,  and  then  quickly 
raises  and  discharges  it.  The  Baluba  tribe  in  Africa  uses  the  Medi- 
terranean release,  two-fingered.  The  bow  resembles  that  of  the 
ancient  Egyptian. 

18 


It  would  be  an  interesting  path  of  inquiry  to  trace  the  origin 
of  the  Mediterranean  release.  Did  it  first  arise  among  the  Aryan 
people  in  Central  Asia  and  if  so  was  the  release  transmitted  to  the 
Eskimo?  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  Eskimo  savages  ranging  from 
the  east  to  the  west  coasts  of  North  America  practice  the  Mediterranean 
release  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  forms.  The  Mediterranean  release 
occurs  sporadically  the  world  over.  Furthermore  the  Eskimo  are 
the  only  people  who  have  ever  devised  a  special  form  of  arrow,  flattened 
at  the  nock  end  to  more  easily  facilitate  the  discharge  of  the  arrow, 
it  would  be  almost  impossible  to  use  this  form  of  arrow  in  other  releases. 
We  have  seen  that  in  prehistoric  times  the  Danes  and  the  inhabitants 
of  Schleswig  practiced  the  primary  release  and  probably  the  method  of 
other  European  races.  Mr.  John  Murdoch,  who  made  an  ethnologi- 
cal journey  to  Point  Barrow  in  Alaska,  and  lived  with  the  Eskimo  for 
two  years  believed  in  Scandinavian  influences  among  the  Eskimo. 
In  a  letter  to  me  he  says,  "You  are  quite  at  liberty  to  allude  to  my 
ideas  of  Scandinavian  influence  among  the  Eskimo.  I  have  not  studied 
up  the  the  Scandinavian  side  of  the  question  thoroughly  enough  to 
make  any  formal  statement  on  the  subject."  Mr.  Murdock  gave 
particular  attention  to  Eskimo  arts  and  customs  in  a  report  pub- 
lished by  the  Smithsonian  Institution.  In  this  report  he  is  strongly 
inclined  to  the  belief  that  several  customs  extending  from  Greenland 
to  and  across  Bering  Straits  are  derived  from  Scandinavian  colonists 
in  Greenland.  These  are  "the  method  of  arrow  release,  the  size  of 
the  oars  as  well  as  paddles,  a  custom  as  far  as  I  know,  unparalleled 
among  savages,  and  the  method  of  slinging  the  oar  in  thongs  instead 
of  using  rowlocks.  The  sail  of  the  Umiak  is  also  strikingly  like  those 
in  the  Norse  ships." 

We  have  seen  that  the  early  Scandinavian  release  was  primary, 
is  it  unreasonable  to  suggest  that  the  Mediterranean  release  may  have 
been  first  practiced  by  the  Eskimo  and  from  this  race  the  races  to  the 
south  acquired  it?  If  in  paleochrystic  ice  or  prehistoric  Eskimo 
deposits  we  could  find  the  flattened  nock  end  of  an  arrow  it  might  set- 
tle the  question. 

19 


Fig-  18     Seri     Gulf  of  Californi 


fornia 


20 


It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  release  universally  practiced  by  the 
Mediterranean  nations,  and  a  release  which  I  thought  was  associated 
with  the  higher  races  is  also  seen  among  the  lowest  savage  races  today, 
namely,  the  Andaman  Islanders,  the  Pygmy  negritos  of  the  Philippine 
Islands,  the  Veddahs  of  Ceylon,  the  Botocudo  Indians  of  Brazil  and 
other  low  savage  peoples. 

On  an  island  in  the  Gulf 
of  California  is  found  the 
remnant  of  a  tribe  known  as 
the  Seri  Indians.  A  volum- 
inous report  of  these  Indians 
was  published  in  the  17th 
Annual  Report  of  the  U.  S. 
Bureau  of  Ethnology,  by  Dr. 
Wm.  McGee.  Major  Pow- 
ell, as  Chief  of  the  Bureau, 
in  an  introductory  note  to 
the  Report  says,  "Among 
these  aborigines  known  to 
Caucasians  the  Seri  Indians 
appear  to  stand  nearly  or 
Fig.  19    Apache  q^i^e  ^t  the  bottom  of  the 

scale.  They  are  v/ithout  agricultural  or  other  organized  industries: 
they  still  haunt  their  primeval  shorelands,  and  their  fisheries  are  crude 
and  simple,  while  their  water-craft  (in  which  their  culture  culminates) 
are  practically  individual  in  design,  manufacture  and  function;  and 
their  social  organization  is  of  peculiarly  significant  simplicity."  In 
this  report  one  figure  is  given  of  a  Seri  warrior  in  the  attitude  of  shoot- 
ing the  bow.     A  perfect  Mediterranean  release  is  shown.     (Fig.  18). 

Dr.  Ten  Kate  sent  me  a  photograph  of  an  Apache  warrior  from 
San  Carlos,  Arizona.  He  is  in  the  act  of  shooting  the  bow.  (Fig.  19). 
The  release  is  clearly  Mediterranean  using  three  fingers. 

Dr.  Bovallius,  of  Stockholm,  described  to  me  a  release  which 
may  have  been  identical  to  that  described  by  Dr.  Steinen,  namely, 


21 


a  two-fingered  Mediterranean.  This  was  practiced  by  a  tribe  of 
Indians  on  the  south-eastern  coast  of  Costa  Rica  known  as  the  Tala- 
manca  Indians,  Bribri  tribe.  He  was  sure  of  the  release  as  he  had 
often  shot  with  them.  They  use  this  release  in  shooting  fish  in  the  water. 
The  arrow  is  six  feet  long  and  without  barbs,  and  is  held  between  the 
tips  of  the  first  and  second  fingers,  the  thumb  is  held  at  the  butt  of 
the  arrow  which  is  truncate.  The  end  of  the  arrow  is  slightly  thickened 
with  gum  and  cord  so  as  to  give  a  firmer  hold.  The  bow  is  held  nearly 
horizontal.     (Fig.  20).     Despite  the  statement  of  Dr.  Bovallius  as  to 


Fig.  20     Bribri 


the  method  of  release  of  the  Talamanca  Indians  we  find  in  the  National 
Geographic  Magazine,  Vol.  XLI,  No.  2,  an  article  by  Paul  B.  Popenoe, 
on  Costa  Rica  in  which  is  given  a  picture  of  these  Indians.  In  some 
respects  the  picture  agrees  with  Dr.  Bovallius'  statements;  the  arrows 
are  six  feet  long,  they  are  evidently  shooting  fish  but  the  attitude  of  the 
hand  in  all  three  indicates  the  tertiary  release. 

At  Manchester,  England,  I  met  a  traveler,  whose  name  I  have 
misplaced,  who  told  me  he  had  been  among  the  Botocudo  Indians  of 
Brazil,  and  he  had  observed  that  in  using  the  bow  they  drew  it  with 
two  fingers  on  the  cord,  which  indicated  the  Mediterranean  release. 

22 


William  Jno.  Steains,  employed  by  an  English  firm  in  construct- 
ing a  railway  in  Brazil  undertook,  at  his  own  expense,  the  exploration 
of  the  Rio  Doce  and  its  tributaries.  This  valley  is  inhabited  by 
wild  Botucudo  Indians.  These  Indians  practice  the  Mediterranean 
release  using  two  fingers  unless  the  bow  is  very  stiff  when  three  fingers 
are  used. 

In  Strutts  "Sports  and  Pastimes"  there  is  the  figure  of  an  archer 
copied  from  Saxon  Manuscript  of  the  eighth  century.  The  release 
shows  three  fingers  on  the  string  with  the  arrow  between  the  first  and 
second  fingers,  indicating  a  typical  Mediterranean  release.  Usually 
the  figures  of  ancient  archers  show  only  two  fingers. 

Mrs.  Clement  Waters  sent  me  a  photograph  of  the  bronze 
doors  of  the  famous  cathedral  at  Amalfi.  These  doors  were  made 
in  Constantinople  in  1075  A.  D.  Among  the  paneled  figures  is  an 
archer  plainly  showing  the  Mediterranean  release  and  probably  show- 
ing the  use  of  the  two  fingers.  The  figures  are  very  archaic.  The 
designs  were  evidently  made  by  one  who  was  not  a  Turk  as  the  Turks 
practice  the  Mongolian  release. 

In  a  famous  psalter  executed  by  Geoffrey  Lonterell,  in  1345, 
the  figure  of  an  archer  is  given  shooting  at  a  target,  the  Mediterra- 
nean release  is  clearly  shown.  Three  fingers  are  used  instead  of  two 
as  in  most  of  the  figures  over  two  hundred  years  old. 

In  the  Royal  Art  Museum,  Berlin,  are  a  number  of  ancient  Greek 
vases,  red  on  black,  on  which  an  archer  is  shown  using  the  typical 
Mediterranean  release.  In  the  same  Museum  is  a  bronze  statue  of 
Eros  bracing  the  bow  in  English  style.  The  bow  being  short  the 
lower  end  rests  against  the  knee  instead  of  the  foot. 

In  the  Museum  of  St.  Germain,  near  Paris,  is  a  remarkable  replica 
of  Trajan's  Column,  in  this  the  Dacians  are  shown  using  the  Mediter- 
ranean release,  two  fingered.  In  many  of  the  figures  represented  the 
bow  is  very  short. 

Realizing  that  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  India  were  Aryan  in  origin 
it  was  most  important  to  ascertain  the  methods  of  archery  among 
the  savage  tribes  in   the  interior.     An  East   Indian  officer,  Capt. 

23 


John  Johnstone,  visiting  Boston,  promised  to  secure  for  me,  through 
a  brother  officer,  the  method  of  arrow  release  of  primitive  tribes  inhab- 
iting the  region  in  which  he  was  stationed.  Some  months  after  Capt. 
Johnstone's  departure  I  got  a  letter  from  him,  accompanied  by  the 
clearest  drawings  showing  the  arrow  release  among  the  native  tribes. 
The  following  is  an  extract,  "I  asked  a  friend  of  mine,  Capt.  Luard, 
who  is  compiling  the  Gazeteer  of  Central  India  to  have  some  sketches 
prepared  for  me  for  transmission  to  you  and  he  has  sent  those  I  en- 
close, together  with  two  photographs.  I  hope  they  will  be  of  some 
use  to  you.  The  Bhils  (pronounced  Bheels)  are  among  the  most 
primitive  tribes  of  Central  India  and  are  looked  upon  as  aborigines. 
They  do  not  admit  themselves  to  be  Hindus,  though  when  brought 
into  close  contact  with  the  latter  they  are  apt  to  adopt  many  Hindu 
customs  and  deities.  They  still  use  bows  and  arrows  in  their  native 
haunts  chiefly  against  wild  beasts,  but  occasionally  against  each 
other."  The  following  figure  (Fig.  21)  is  a  reduced  reproduction  of 
one  of  the  drawings.  The  release  is  an  absolutely  perfect  Mediter- 
ranean with  two  fingers. 

In  a  collection  of  photographs  published  by  the  London  Indian 
Museum  in  1868,  entitled  "The  People  of  India."  Vol.  1,  Plate  21,  is 
shown  a  native  of  the  Korwa  group  from  Chola  Nagpoor  and  regarded 
as  an  aborigine;    the  release  is  typically  Mediterranean. 

Edward  Tuite  Dalton,  in  a  work  entitled  "Descriptive  Ethnolo- 
gy of  Bengal,"  figures  a  number  of  the  Korwas  shooting  with  a  bow. 
These  people  are  considered  one  of  the  wildest  of  the  Kolarian  tribes. 
The  arrow  release  is  clearly  shown  and  it  is  distinctly  Mediterranean. 
The  Korwas  are  found  in  the  hills  rising  in  the  Sirguja  and  Jaspur 
Estates  in  the  Province  of  Shutia,  Nagpur. 

Edward  Horace  Mann,  Esq.,  in  his  work  "On  the  Aboriginal 
Inhabitants  of  the  Andaman  Islands"*  says,  "It  is  a  singular  fact  that 
the  mode  in  which  the  tribes  of  Great  Andaman  discharge  their  arrows 
differs  from  that  in  vogue  among  the  Jar'awa.     While  the  latter  are 


*Reprinted  from  the  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland. 

24 


Fig.  21     Bhil,  India 


25 


said  to  adopt  the  plan  usual  among  ourselves  of  holding  the  nock  of 
the  arrow  inside  the  string  by  means  of  the  middle  joints  of  the  fore 
and  middle  fingers  and  drawing  the  string  with  the  same  joints,  it  is 
the  practice  among  the  former  to  place  the  arrows  in  position  between 
the  thumb  and  the  top  joint  of  the  forefinger  and  to  draw  the  string 
to  the  mouth  with  the  middle  and  third  fingers."  The  Jar'awa  then 
practice  the  Mediterranean  release  while  the  others  practice  the  second- 
ary release.    As  an  illustration  of.  the  instability  of  arrow  release  among 


Fig.  22    Andaman 

savages,  I  refer  to  the  archery  nimiber  of  the  Badminton  series  in  which 
Mr.  Longman  presents  some  reproductions  of  photographs  taken  by 
Mr.  M.  V.  PoRTMAN  from  his  unpublished  notes.  These  I  have 
copied,  (Fig.  22)  and  they  represent  in  turn  the  primary,  a  modifica- 
tion of  the  tertiary,  Mediterranean  and  Mongolian,  and  the  one  de- 
scribed above  is  certainly  secondary.  It  may  be  of  interest  to  remark 
that  here  is  one  of  the  lowest  savage  groups  of  people,  the  only  pure 
negrito  people  existing,  so  Mr.  Portman  says,  so  low  that  they  are  in 

26 


an  amorphous  condition  regarding  archery.  A  crooked  wooden  stave 
for  a  bow,  arrows  without  barbs  and,  according  to  Mr.  Portman,  who 
hved  among  them  for  fourteen  years,  the  poorest  shots  imaginable 


Fig.  23     Inge,  Little  Andaman 

and  yet  presenting  examples  of  the  five  pronounced  releases  known. 
They  are  in  such  an  embryonic  condition  that  they  have  not  yet 
established  a  permanent  release.  The  Onge  Tribe  inhabiting  the  Little 
Andaman  practice  the  Mediterranean  release  (Fig.  23). 

In  the  third  volume  of  RatzeVs  History  of  Mankind,  page  356,  is 
an  illustration  of  a  Veddah  of  Ceylon  in  the  act  of  shooting  the  bow. 

27 


The  photograph  from  which  it  was  derived  was  made  by  Emil  Schmidt 

of  Leipsic.     The  release  is  Mediterranean,  three  fingered.      (Fig.  24). 

At  the  St.  Louis  Fair  I  saw  members  of  a  tribe  called  Bagoba  from 

the  Philippines.     One  of  them  shot  for  me  and  he  used  the  primary 


Fig.  24     Veddah 


F    g.  25     Negrito 


release.  The  arrows  were  not  feathered  and  their  flight  was  crooked. 
A  negrito  child  among  them,  19  months  old,  shot  for  me  in  the  most 
vigorous  manner.  He  used  the  tertiary  release  with  thumb  on  the 
string,  the  bow  held  vertical.     (Fig.  25). 

28 


Mr.  Verner,  at  the  St.  Louis  Fair  had  charge  of  a  number  of 
pygmies  from  the  Phihppines.  A  number  of  the  tribe  known  as 
Chiri  shot  for  me  using  the  Mediterranean  release.  (Fig.  26.  See 
frontispiece.)     The  best  shots  among  them  used  the  tertiary  release. 

In  the  Ethnological  Museum  at  Dresden  I  copied  from  a  photo- 
graph an  Aeta  (Negrito)  from  Cagayan,  Northern  Luzon,  in  the 
act  of  shooting  and  he  used  a  typical  Mediterranean  release.     (Fig  27). 

In  the  Smithsonian  Annual  Report  for  1899  (p.  540)  is  a  picture 
of  a  Negrito  from  the  Province  of  Maravale,  Luzon.  The  release 
shown  is  Mediterranean. 


Fig.  27     Negrito 

In  Collier's  Weekly,  for  May  13,  1899  is  a  picture  of  a  Tinguian 
bowman  of  the  Philippine  Islands.  The  release  shown  is  distinctly 
Mediterranean,  two  fingered. 

In  photographs  of  the  marvellous  ruins  at  Angkor,  Cambogia, 
I  found  the  figure  of  an  archer  drawing  the  bow  and  the  release  is 
plainly  Mediterranean.  These  ruins  date  back  to  the  ninth  century. 
One  might  have  looked  for  a  Mongolian  release.  When  I  first  defined 
the  Mongolian  release  I  supposed  it  was  strictly  limited  to  Asiatic 
nations.  Dr.  Felix  von  Luschan,  Director  of  the  Ethnological 
Museum  of  Berlin,  in  a  letter  to  me  dated  July  16,  1891  announced 
the  discovery  of  the  Mongolian  release  in  Africa.  The  following  is 
an  extract  from  his  letter,  "I  am  sending  you  a  paper  model  of  a  quite 
new  form  of  arrow  release.  It  came  to  the  Museum  some  days  ago. 
I  will  have  it  photographed  and  published  in  the  Transactions  of  our 

29 


Anthropological  Society,  but  it  will  be  several  months  before  it  comes 
out,  and  I  want  you  to  knew  it  as  scon  as  possible.  Our  specimens 
came  frcm  the  Wcotah  people  (interior  of  Kameroun,  West  Africa) 
and  were  brought  here  by  Lieut.  Morgen.  You  might  best  call 
them  rings  for  the  metacarpus  although  they  are  not  round.  They 
consist  of  a  small  thin  board  of  hard  wood  fromi  four  to  five  millimeters 
in  thickness.  This  board  is  bent  near  its  middle  so  as  to  form  a  3'oke, 
both  sides  remaining  quite  parallel  and  being  held  together  by  a  thin 
leather  string,  which  may  be  tightened  or  loosened  according  to  the 
size  of  the  hand  which  is  to  enter.  The  hand  enters  with  all  four 
fingers,  the  forefinger  on  the  side  of  the  round  angle,  the  little  finger 
on  the  open  side,  naturally  the  broad  end  which  is  generally  orna- 
mented and  comes  on  the  dorsum  manus.  I  hope  the  description 
is  plain  enough  so  that  you  may  understand  this  mar- 
vellous kind  of  release.  It  is  by  far  the  most  powerful 
I  ever  heard  of,  because  you  engage  the  whole  hand 
and  not  only  one  or  two  fingers,  and  still  the  instant 
of  loosing  the  arrow  is  exceedingly  delicate  and  smooth. 
I  think  that  when  one  has  once  seen  this  release  one 
will  find  it  preferable  to  all  others,  according  to  the 
Fig'.  28  form  of  their  bows  and  the  immense  force  they  can 

employ.  The  Wootah  have  also  quite  enormous  leather  bracelets  for 
the  protection  of  the  bow  hand.  A  section  of  such  a  bracelet  would 
have  the  form  you  see  here  (Fig.  28)  only  the  small  ovoid  part  forms 
the  real  bracelet,  the  rest  is  a  hollow  cone  of  thick  black  leather  which 
is  also  ornamented  with  much  care  and  taste."  The  Transactions 
of  the  Berlin  Society  of  Anthropology  published  his  paper  on  the  "Bend- 
ing of  the  Bow,"  a  free  translation  of  a  portion  of  which  is  given  in 
the  end  of  this  paper  in  an  appendix. 

I  have  already  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  indistinct  rock 
sculpture  or  drawings  the  attitude  of  the  hand  resembles  more  or  less 
a  closed  fist,  while  in  the  Mongolian  release  the  fingers  appear  to  be 
bent  dcwTiward,  the  back  of  the  hand  being  uppermost.  In  a  stone 
sculpture  of  a  Hittite  archer  discovered  by  Dr.  Luschan,  and  with 

30 


his  permission  figured  by  Mr.  Longman  in  "Badminton's  Archery," 
p.  67,  the  attitude  of  the  hand  indicates  the  Mongohan  release.  This 
figure  was  discovered  in  Asia  Minor.  The  expression  on  the  face  of  this 
Hittite  figure  recalls  Roger  Ascham's  description  in  his  Toxophilus, 
written  in  1544,  of  his  squad  of  awkward  bowmen.  Among  other 
grotesque  expressions,  he  says,  "Some  make  a  face  with  wrything  theyr 
mouth  as  though  they  were  doing  you  wotte  what."     (Fig.  29). 

Mr.  Rudolph  Virchow  permitted  me  to  make  a  drawing  of  a 


Fig.  29     Hittite  Archer 


bronze  ax  in  his  possession  which  was  dug  up  in  the  Caucasus.  It  was 
believed  to  date  a  thousand  years,  B.C.,  the  age  being  determined  by 
coins  associated  with  it.  Upon  its  face  was  an  incised  outline  of  an 
archer  of  which  I  made  a  rubbing.  Both  hands  were  upon  the  string 
but  the  outline  was  so  faint  and  so  roughly  drawn  that  it  was  impossi- 
ble to  determine  the  method  of  release;  the  bow  was  very  short  but 
certainly  not  Mongolian.  The  peculiar  head-dress  or  helmet  may  be 
identified  by  some  classical  archaeologist. 

31 


Mr.  F.  W.  Gookin,  of  Chicago,  has  kindly  sent  me  a  copy  of  a 
Persian  archer  from  Alfred  Maskell's  "Hand  book  of  Russian 
Art  and  Art  Objects  in  Russia."  The  archer  is  delicately  engraved 
on  an  ancient  silver  bowl  of  Sassanian  workmanship  in  the  Hermitage 
Museum,  Petrograd.  Mr.  Gookin,  in  a  letter,  says  "The  description 
of  the  bowl  which  is  very  meagre  states  that  it  bears  an  inscription  in 
Pehlir  characters  (the  ancient  writing  used  in  Persia  under  the  dynasty 
of  the  Sassanians)  which  has  not  been  deciphered,  the  date  therefore 
is  uncertain,  but  from  a  comparison  with  a  monument  known  under 
the  name  of  Takt-i  Bostan  situated  near  the  modern  town  of  Kerman- 
schat,  which  was  executed  during  the  reign  of  Bahran  Kermanschat 


Fig.  30     Sassanian 

(A.  D.  389-399)  it  is  supposed  to  have  been  made  about  the  same 
period."  Mr.  Gookin's  exquisite  drawing  is  difhcult  to  reproduce 
on  account  of  the  delicacy  of  the  lines.  He  has  made  an  enlarged 
copy  of  the  right  hand  showing  clearly  the  Mongolian  release  (Fig.  30). 
The  thumb  is  seen  curving  up  and  the  forefinger  is  locked  over  the  end 
of  the  thumb.  The  bow  is  strictly  Mongolian  in  character  and  hence 
a  composite  bow.  This  evidence  of  the  Mongolian  release  establishes 
a  date  showing  at  least  how  early  the  method  was  introduced  from 
China,  for  unquestionably  being  Aryan,  in  still  earlier  times  the  Medi- 
terranean, and  before  this  the  primary  release  must  have  been  used. 
The  most  complete  and  satisfactory  description  of  an  arrow 
release,  and  all  details  of  an  archer's  practice  is  given  by  Saxton 
T.  Pope  in  the    University  of  California  Publications  in  American 

32 


Anthropology  and  Ethnology,  Vol.  13,  No.  3.  In  this  Memoir,  entitled 
"Yahi  Archery,"  Mr.  Pope  gives  the  results  of  a  study  of  the  last 
survivor  of  a  tribe  of  Indians  with  whom  Mr.  Pope  associated  for 
three  years.  The  author  says,  "The  present  paper  is  an  attempt  to 
present  the  facts  concerning  the  archery  of  one  tribe,  the  Yahi  or  Deer 
Creek  Indians  of  north  central  California,  the  most  southerly  divi- 
sion of  the  Yanan  stock  as  represented  in  the  person  of  its  last  survi- 
vor, IsHi,  who  lived  from  1911  to  1916  at  the  University  of  California." 
Mr.  Pope  lived  with  Ism  for  three  years,  hunted  with  him  in  the 
woods  and  watched  him  as  he  fabricated  his  bows  and  arrows,  illus- 
trating all  the  details  in  his  paper.  A  colored  plate  is  given  of  18 
arrowheads  made  from  flint  and  obsidian.  The  incredible  precision 
and  delicacy  in  the  making  of  these  arrowheads  almost  exceeds  belief. 
Mr.  Pope's  "Memoir"  is  really  a  monograph  of  the  archery  of  a  single 
tribe.  In  shooting,  the  bow  was  held  in  a  horizontal  position  with  the 
back  of  the  hand  downward,  the  arrow  resting  on  the  bow  between 
the  thumb  and  forefinger.  Mr.  Pope  says,  "The  arrow  release  was  a 
modification  of  that  known  as  the  Mongolian  type,  that  is  he  'drew'  the 
bow  with  the  right  thumb  flexed  beneath  the  string.  On  the  thumb 
nail  he  laid  the  end  of  the  middle  finger,  to  strengthen  the  hold.  The 
index  finger,  completely  flexed,  rested  on  the  arrow  to  keep  it  from 
slipping  from  the  string.  The  extremities  of  the  feathers,  being  near 
the  nock,  were  neatly  folded  along  the  shaft  in  the  grip  of  these  fingers, 
to  prevent  them  from  being  ruffled."  The  outline,  (Fig.  31) ,  traced  from 
his  drawing  clearly  illustrates  the  position  of  the  fingers.  I  do  not 
regard  this  release  as  a  modification  of  the  Mongolian  release  but  a 
new  and  distinct  form,  its  only  resemblance  is  seen  in  drawing  the  string 
with  the  thumb,  the  thumb-ring,  which  is  invariably  used  in  the  Mon- 
golian release,  is  absent.  It  is  a  distinct  type  and  as  Mr.  Pope  is  the 
discoverer  of  it  I  leave  it  to  him  to  name  this  new  species.  Mr.  Pope 
says  that  "Ishi  knew  of  several  releases,  saying  that  certain  other 
tribes  used  them.  The  primary  type,  that  where  the  arrow  butt  is 
gripped  between  the  thumb  and  the  flexed  foreflnger,  he  said  certain 
Indians  used,  and  it  seemed  to  be  a  criterion  of  strength."     The  most 

33 


extraordinary  feature  of  Ishi's  use  of  the  bow  is  that  on  the  discharge 
of  the  arrow  the  bow  is  made  to  revolve  in  the  hand  as  in  the  Japanese 
practice.  He  says,  "When  the  arrow  left  the  string,  at  the  moment  of 
release,  the  bow  revolved,  or  turned  over  completely,  in  his  hand,  so  that 
the  back  of  the  bow  was  toward  him."  The  Japanese  are  the  only 
people  who  cause  the  bow  to  revolve  in  the  hand  except  those  who  use 
the  stone  bow.  In  this  release  no  arm  guard  is  required  and  Mr.  Pope 
said  ISHi  "never  used  a  wrist  guard  or,  bracer,  on  his  left  arm  to  protect 
it  from  the  string,  although  he  nearly  always  pulled  up  his  shirt  sleeve. 


Fig.  31     Yahi  California 


This  was  to  avoid  striking  any  clothing  with  the  string,  which  would 
check  the  flight  of  the  arrow.  At  times  the  string  did  strike  his  fore- 
arm, and  bruise  it,  and  after  prolonged  shooting  his  left  wrist  was  often 
sore  and  ecchymosed." 

It  is  a  curious  linguistic  coincidence  that  the  name  Ishi  is  identical 
to  a  Japanese  word,  meaning  stone,  and  the  first  syllable  of  his  tribal 
name,  Yahi,  Ya,  is  the  Japanese  word  for  arrow. 

In  gathering  material  for  a  chapter  on  archers'  thumb-rings  I 
made  hasty  sketches  of  these  objects  in  European  museums  as  opportu- 

34 


nity  offered.  On  writing  up  these  notes  I  was  amazed  at  the  scant  Uter- 
ature  on  the  subject.*  With  the  exception  of  Dr.  Felix  von  Lus- 
chan's  paper  on  African  thumb-rings  in  which  he  illustrates  two  from 
Africa  and  a  new  type  from  Korea,  I  found  only  a  few  archers'  rings 
figured.  In  Meyrick's  "Ancient  Armour,"  1842,  is  figured  a  ring 
accredited  to  Persia.  Hansard's  "Archery,"  1845,  copies  it  and  in 
my  "Ancient  and  Modern  Methods  of  Arrow  Release,"  1885,  I  repro- 
duced it  from  Meyrick's  work.  I  may  add  that  the  figure  bears  but 
little  resemblance  to  the  archer's  thumb-ring,  doubtless  owing  to  poor 
drawing.  In  a  work  entitled  "Projectile-Throwing  Engines  of  the 
Ancients,"  with  a  treatise  on  the  Turkish  and  other  oriental  bows,  by 


*"The  siftn,  or  thumb-rings,  before  alluded  to,  are  one  of  the  distinctions  of  an  Oriental 
archer.  Englishmen,  it  is  well  known,  draw  the  bowstring  with  their  first  three  fingers; 
the  Flemings,  with  the  first  and  second  only;  but  neither  use  the  thumb  at  all.  The 
Asiatic  method  is  the  reverse  of  this.  There  the  bowman  draws  altogether  with  his 
thumb,  the  forefinger  bent  in  its  first  and  second  joint,  being  merely  pressed  on  one  side 
of  the  arrow  nock,  to  secure  it  from  falling.  In  order  to  prevent  the  flesh  from  being 
torn  by  the  bowstring,  he  wears  a  broad  ring  of  agate,  cornelian,  green  marble,  ivory, 
horn,  or  iron,  according  to  his  rank  and  means.  Upon  the  inside  of  this,  which  projects 
half  an  inch,  the  string  rests  when  the  bow  is  drawn;  on  the  outside  it  is  only  half  that 
breadth;  and,  in  loosing  the  arrow,  he  straightens  his  thumb,  which  sets  the  string  free. 
These  rings,  with  a  spare  string,  are  usually  carried  in  a  small  box,  suspended  at  the  bow- 
man's side;  but  from  habit,  many  retain  them  constantly  upon  the  hand,  for  ornament 
as  well  as  use. 

Consistent  with  the  splendour  of  their  other  appointments,  the  sefin  worn  by  those 
dark-eyed  houris,  whose  feats  we  have  so  recently  been  contemplating,  are  adorned  with 
all  the  cunning  of  the  jeweller's  art.  A  stone  called  jadde,  crystal,  jasper,  and  even  gold, 
inlaid  with  stones  of  varied  hue,  glitter  in  the  sunbeams  as  each  snowy  hand  strains  up 
the  silken  bowstring.  A  quilted  half  sleeve  of  crimson  velvet,  or  fine  cloth,  thickly 
embroidered  with  gold  flowers,  protects  the  arm  from  being  bruised  by  the  cord  in  its 
return.  Did  not  a  very  curious  relic,  recently  come  to  light,  prove  Ch.'MJCEr's  'gai  bracer' 
to  be  a  purely  English  fashion,  we  might  imagine  he  was  describing  one  of  these.  The 
weight  of  the  gold  in  one  which  I  wore  upon  my  arm  for  a  short  time  was  remarkable; 
it  probably  amounted  to  three  or  four  ounces."     Hansard  Book  of  Archery,  p.  136. 

In  no  other  country  in  the  world  has  the  practice  of  archery  survived  as  in  England. 
The  Royal  Toxophilite  Society  of  London  and  many  other  archery  Societies  in  England 
were  founded  in  the  17th  and  18th  centuries.  England  may  claim  the  greatest  number 
of  books  on  archery.  With  this  supremacy  in  the  archery  field  it  is  strange  to  find  so 
brief  an  article  on  the  subject  in  the  Encyclopedia  Brittanica.  The  word  archer's 
ring  does  not  appear.  Its  meagre  bibliography  makes  no  mention  of  Hansard's  classical 
book  with  its  steel  engravings.  In  some  unaccountable  way  it  records  my  "Ancient  and 
Modern  Methods  of  Arrow  Release"  Essex  Instilide  BuUttin,  Salem,  Mass.,  1885,  as 
follows:    Archery,  Ancient  and  Modern,  E.  S.  Morse,  Worcester,  Mass.   1792. 

35 


Sir  Ralph  Paine-Gallway,  1907,  an  archer's  ring  is  figured  on  a  hand 
supposed  to  represent  its  attitude.  The  ring  is  on  the  thumb  upside 
down  and  the  attitude  of  the  hand  is  entirely  wrong.  Most  detailed 
and  elaborate  descriptions  and  illustrations  are,  however,  given  of  the 
catapult,  balista,  trebuchet  and  other  ancient  engines  of  war. 

Dr.  Berthold  Laufer,  in  his  memoir  on  Jade  (Field  Museum  of 
Natural  History,  Anthropological  Series,  Vol.  X.)  figures  an  archer's 
thumb-ring  from  a  tomb  of  the  Han  period.  It  is  flattened  on 
one  side,  the  flattened  surface  being  slightly  rounded.  Mr.  Laufer 
in  quoting  from  a  Chinese  book  by  Wu  Ta-Cheng,  says:  "These 
thumb-rings  are  still  used  in  archery  and  manufactured  in  Peking  from 
the  antlers  of  an  elk."     "Wu  Ta-Cheng  figures  also  a  specimen  of 

pure  white  jade and  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  this  particular 

piece  was  reserved  for  Imperial  use,  on  the  ground  that  such  rings  of 
white  jade  were  permitted  to  the  Emperor  only,  while  those  of  the 
officials  were  of  ivory."  "The  mode  of  wearing  the  ring  may  be  seen  in 
a  Chinese  illustration  given  by  P.  Etienne  Zi  {Pratique  des  examens 
militaires  en  Chine,  Shanghai  1896).  Father  Zi  remarks  that  the  most 
prized  rings  are  those  made  of  jade  of  the  Han  period,  of  a  white  gray 
with  red  veins  and  green  stripes;  those  taken  from  the  graves  of 
students  who  have  graduated  at  the  time  of  the  military  examinations 
are  reddish  in  color,  and  a  notion  that  they  afford  protection  against 
spirits  is  attached  to  them." 

In  the  Pitt-River's  collection.  University  Museum,  Oxford, 
Dr.  Henry  Balfour  called  my  attention  to  a  white  jade  ring  accredit- 
ed to  India  which  is  the  only  one  I  have  ever  seen  of  its  kind.  Its  pecul- 
iarity consists  in  having  a  deep  groove  on  the  face  of  the  ring  to  engage 
the  bow  string.  A  blunt  projecting  ridge  is  seen  on  the  back  of  the  ring. 
It  is  probably  Persian  in  origin.  Fig,  32.  It  is  somewhat  flat  in  form 
like  a  number  of  the  Persian  rings  figured  in  the  following  plates. 

In  volume  second  of  the  two  huge  volumes  forming  the  Catalogue  of 
the  Bishop  Collection  of  jade  a  figure  is  given  of  an  archer's  ring, 
brownish  in  color,  with  the  statement  that  it  was  found  in  an  ancient 
tomb  of  the  Han  period. 

36 


In  Badminton's  "Archery,"  Col.  H.  Waldron,  contributes  an 
exhaustive  bibliography  of  works  on  archery  including  treatises,  not 
only  books  but  society  reports,  magazines  and  even  newspaper  articles. 
On  an  examination  of  this  voluminous  list  I  failed  to  find  any 
reference  to  an  archer's  ring. 

Lord  Edgarton  published  "A  Description  of  India  and  Oriental 
Armour",  in  1896.     The  volume  is  illustrated  with  beautiful  colored 


Fig.  32    Thumb  ring  India    (?) 


plates  besides  many  in  black.  Over  one  thousand  catalogue  numbers 
are  given,  comprising  those  of  the  Indian  Museum  of  London,  and  those 
of  his  own  collection,  yet  no  reference  to  an  archer's  ring  is  mentioned. 
This  seems  the  more  strange  as  I  sketched  two  thumb-rings  in  the 
Indian  Museum.  It  is  true  that  the  collection  of  the  Indian  Museum 
has  been  transferred  to  the  South  Kensington  Museum,  but  one  should 
have  found  the  rings  mentioned  in  the  numbered  catalogue  in  Lord 
Edgarton's  book. 

I  have  sketches  of  archers'  rings  from  the  British  Museum  accred- 
ited to  India.  Some  of  them  are  beautifully  inlaid  with  rubies  and 
emeralds.  They  showed  no  sign  of  wear  and  were  worn  only  as  orna- 
ments. In  the  work  above  mentioned  it  is  stated  that  the  swords  of 
Persia  are  generally  worn  by  the  Indian  Rajahs,  and  in  the  same  spirit 

37 


the  Nabobs  of  India  secured  the  bejeweled  thumb-rings  from  Persia  to 
decorate  the  person.  On  the  borders  of  Persia  and  Tartary  the  com- 
posite bow  and  the  thumb-ring  might  have  been  introduced,  but  the 
aboriginal  bow  of  India  was  the  long  bow.  I  have  already  shown  that 
the  Bhils  and  other  aboriginal  tribes  of  India  practiced  the  Mediterra- 
nean release. 

In  the  earliest  records  of  India  no  allusion  is  made  to  the  thumb- 
ring.  Prof.  E.  Washburn  Hopkins,  the  author  of  a  profound  memoir 
on  the  Hindu  Epic  going  back  to  Buddhistic  times,  writes  me  as  fol- 
lows: "In  so  far  as  I  know  about  the  matter  the  Hindu  archer  wore 
'hand-guards'  and  'finger-guards'  (talatrana  and  anguitrana  respec- 
tively) and  the  latter  may  have  been  in  ring  shape,  but  they  are  spoken 
of  as  made  of  iguana  skin,  not  of  metal.  The  warriors  all  wore  'finger- 
guards'  as  protection  from  the  bow  string.  {Jour.  Am.  Oriental  Soc, 
Vol.  XIII,  pp.  304  and  308.)  Rings  are  for  seals,  but  metal  rings  for 
bow-men  are  not  mentioned." 

It  is  significant  that  the  ancient  people  of  India  used  finger-guards 
made  of  iguana  skin,  in  other  words,  leather  tips  for  the  fingers,  as  used 
by  all  European  archers  today,  and  shows  that  these  ancient  people 
practiced  the  same  release  that  is  used  by  the  aboriginal  tribes  of 
India  at  the  present  time. 

Having  appealed  to  Indian  classics  for  information  about  the 
arrow  release  of  the  early  people  we  turn  to  Chinese  classics  and  find 
in  the  ancient  writings  of  China  indisputable  evidences  of  the  use  of  the 
thumb-ring.  In  the  Shi  King,  or  book  of  ancient  Chinese  poetry  the 
following  allusions  are  made  to  the  use  of  the  thumb-ring,  which  was 
also  called  a  thimble,  and  a  pan  chi,  or  "finger  regulator."  "With 
archer's  thimble  at  his  girdle  hung,"  and  again  "Each  right  thumb 
wore  the  metal  guard." 

In  the  Chinese  Chrestomathy,  translated  by  E.  C.  Bridgman,  the 
rules  for  archery  gives,  for  the  eyes:  "Never  look  at  the  thumb-ring," 
and  "The  thumb-ring  is  made  of  ivory  and  fitted  to  the  thumb  of  the 
right  hand;  by  it  the  string  is  held  and  the  bow  bent."  In  these  two 
records  we  learn  that  in  ancient  times  these  rings  were  made  of  metal 

38 


and  ivory.  From  the  above  consideration  I  cannot  find  any  evidence 
that  archers'  rings  were  made  in  India  and  those  objects  in  European 
museums  and  in  private  collections  labeled  as  such  were  probably  made 
in  Persia  or  in  Turkey.  Hansard  (p.  136)  in  a  foot-note  quotes  another 
author  as  saying,  "One  of  the  early  Turkish  Sultans  occupied  his 
leisure  in  manufacturing  these  rings  "distributing  them  as  presents 
among  his  favorites  and  adds  that  the  carnelian  thumb-rings  may  be 
easily  procured  in  the  bazaars  of  Constantinople. 

An  invariable  accompaniment  of  the  Mongolian  release  is  the 
thumb-ring.  This  may  be  made  of  bronze,  iron,  brass,  ivory,  deer- 
horn,  jade,  agate,  carnelian  and  glass.  There  are  two  distinct  types  of 
thumb-rings;  one  type  is  cylindrical,  long,  thick,  rarely  ornamented. 
This  type  belongs  strictly  to  China;  the  other  type  is  shorter,  oblate, 
never  cylindrical,  one  side  flaring  and  in  profile  resembling,  more  or  less 
the  visor  of  a  cap.  This  type  is  found  in  Persia,  Turkey,  Asia  Minor 
and  Syria.  The  horn-ring  of  the  Koreans  belongs  to  this  type,  the 
flaring  part  being  greatly  elongated.  The  Persian  rings  of  jade  are 
occasionally  inlaid  with  gold,  or  with  emeralds  and  rubies,  or,  when  of 
metal,  with  incised  floral  designs.  The  jade  rings  beautifully  inlaid 
with  gems  show  no  signs  of  wear,  they  have  never  been  used  and  were 
worn  as  ornaments  to  the  person.  In  the  same  way  the  Japanese  inro, 
or  medicine  box,  of  the  Japanese,  at  first  a  simple  and  serviceable  box 
for  stomachics  became  finally  a  marvel  of  gold  lacquer  work  and  was 
worn  as  an  ornament  by  Daimios  and  wealthy  Samurai. 

A  very  old  ring  of  the  flaring  type  was  dug  up  by  Dr.  Felix  von 
LusCHAN  four  hours  out  from  Damascus,  between  that  city  and  Palmyra. 
He  graciously  gave  it  to  me  remarking  that  it  was  an  unicum.  Having 
reason  for  believing  that  the  Hittites  used  the  Mongolian  release  and 
the  region  in  which  this  was  found  coming  well  within  Hittite  territory, 
is  it  possible  that  this  ring  might  prove  to  be  a  Hittite  ring?  The  ring 
is  of  bronze  and  deeply  worn  and  marks  of  a  scroll  design  coarsely 
engraved  is  seen  on  its  face,  though  nearly  obliterated  by  wear,  yet 
enough  remains  to  show  that  the  design  is  bi-symmetrical.  My  daugh- 
ter, Mrs.  Russell  Robb,  endeavoured  to  interpret  the  intentions  of 

39 


the  artist,  and  the  enlarged  drawing  here  given  with  the  ring  (Fig.  33) 
is  the  result.  If  her  interpretation  is  correct  it  may  aid  in  ascertaining 
the  age  and  provenance  of  the  object. 


Fig.  33     Ancient  metal  tliumb  ring  Asia  Miner 

I  am  not  able  to  find  distinguishing  differences  between  those 
rings  marked  Persia  and  those  marked  Turkey;  it  would  seem,  however, 
that  the  highly  decorated  ones  were  made  in  Persia  when  one  considers 
the  gorgeous  swords  with  bejeweled  handles  known  as  Persian  are  worn 
by  Indian  Rajahs.  In  the  illustrations  to  follow  the  orginal  labehng 
will  be  preserved,  bearing  in  mind,  however,  that  those  marked  India 
were  probably  Persian  in  origin. 

At  the  Royal  Toxophilite  Society  of  London,  where  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  shooting  with  Mr.  Longman,  I  found  in  the  collection  of  the 
society  some  archery  implements  presented  by  Mumford  Effendi, 
Secretary  of  the  Embassy,  from  the  Sublime  Porte  in  1794.  Am.ong 
these  objects  was  an  ivory  thumb-ring  (Fig.  34).  A  curious  leather 
flap  issues  from  the  base  of  the  ring  to  prevent  the  string  from  slipping 
off  the  ring  into  the  angle  of  the  thumb  formed  by  the  bent  joint.  In 
the  National  Germanic  Museum  at  Nuremberg  there  was  a  Turkish 
thumb-ring  of  ivory  with  a  similar  leather  attachment.  The  date  of 
this  ring  was  marked  1683  (Fig.  35).  The  guide  book  of  the  Museum 
stated  that  the  Turkish  objects  were  secured  at  the  raising  of  the  seige 


40 


of  Vienna  which  had  been  taken  by  the  Turks  and  retaken  by  German 
and  Pohsh  armies  under  the  command  of  General  John  Sobiesky. 
A  tent  also  in  the  collection  belonged  to  the  Grand  Vizier  Kara  Musta- 
PHA.  The  bow  was  typically  Mongolian.  The  arrow  had  four  barbs 
and  was  beautifully  made.  It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  a  time 
space  of  one  hundred  and  eleven  years  separates  the  two  rings  above 
figured  and  yet  the  free  border  of  the  leather  flaps  are  identical  in 
shape.     An  ivory  Turkish  ring  of  a  later  date,  in  the   collection  of 


Fig.  34     Thumb  ring  Turkey 


Fig.  35     Thumb  ring  Turl<ey 


Mr.  George  C.  Stone,  of  New  York  city,  has  a  leather  edge  cut 
squarely  across  (Fig.  36).  In  the  case  with  these  objects  at  the  Nurem- 
burg  Museum  was  a  drawing  showing  the  attitude  of  the  hand  in  hold- 
ing the  bow.  A  semi-tube  of  horn  was  grasped  against  the  bow;  a 
device  made  to  enable  the  archer  to  pull  the  arrow  within  the  bow  in 
flight  shooting,  this  was  turned  outward  as  if  its  purpose  was  to  guide 
the  arrow.  The  thumb-ring  which  should,  of  course,  be  on  the  right 
thumb  is  here  shown  on  the  thumb  of  the  left  hand  upside  down  and 
backward!    I  informed  the  Director  of  the  errors  in  the  drawing  and 


41 


mention  it  now  for  the  purpose  of  showing  how  little  attention  had 
been  paid  to  these  minor  details.  As  this  was  nearly  thirty-five  years 
ago  these  errors  have   probably  long   since  been  corrected. 

While  the  Japanese  practiced  the  Mongolian  release  I  have  never 
seen  a  thumb-ring,  ancient  or  modern,  in  Japan.  Instead  of  a  ring  they 
use  a  glove  in  which  the  thumb  is  greatly  enlarged  and  grooved  to  admit 
the  string.  The  glove  may  have  the  first  and  second  fingers  or  all  the 
fingers,  the  palm  and  back  of  the  hand  being  uncovered,  Mr.  George 
C.  Stone,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  the  privilege  of  drawing  a  number 
of  archers'  rings  in  his  collection,  in  a  letter  to  me,  says,  "I  presume 


Fig.  36    Thumb  ring  Turkey 


you  have  a  collection  of  archers'  gloves  with  re-enforced  thumbs,  if  not 
I  have  them  with  two  and  three  fingers  and  one  pair  of  full  gloves. 
The  latter  are  peculiar,  the  right  thumb  has  an  extra  thickness  of 
leather  on  the  inside  where  the  bow  string  would  bear  and  the  second 
and  third  fingers  on  both  gloves  are  of  a  very  much  softer  and  lighter 
colored  leather  than  the  rest  of  the  gloves.  Both  have  ventilated 
openings  in  the  palms."  The  Japanese  archer's  glove  figured  in  the 
Badminton  Archery  is  decorated  with  leaves  on  the  thumb  side. 
The  Japanese  archer's  glove  figured  in  my  memoir  represents  the 
typical  form  in  Japan. 

In  closing  I  wish  to  express  my  obligations  to  Mr.  Lawrence 
Waters  Jenkins  for  hunting  up  important  references;  to  George 
C.  Stone  Esq.,  of  New  York,  for  permission  to  figure  a  number  of 
interesting  archers'  rings  from  his  collection;   to  Dr.  W.  P.  Wilson, 

42 


Director  of  the  Commerical  Museum  of  Philadelphia,  who  while 
Chairman  of  the  Philippine  Government  Board,  St.  Louis  Exposition 
enabled  me  to  study  the  Negritos  from  the  Philippine  Islands;  to 
Mr.  Kojiro  Tomita  for  translations  of  Chinese  characters  and  to 
those  whose  names  are  mentioned  in  the  pages  who  helped  me  in  various 
ways  without  whose  kind  assistance  this  contribution  to  the  subject 
could  not  have  been  made. 

The  following  plates  represent  archers'  rings  drawn  natural  size, 
many  of  them  hasty  sketches.  The  first  three  plates  are  supposed  to  be 
Turkish  and  Persian  rings,  some  of  them  attributed  to  India.  Mr. 
George  C.  Stone  informs  me  that  on  his  last  visit  to  the  South  Kens- 
ington Museum  he  saw  a  collection  of  possibly  fifteen  jade  rings  inlaid 
with  rubies  and  emeralds,  labeled  India.  If  made  in  India  it  would  be 
interesting  to  find  out  precisely  in  what  place  in  India  they  were  made. 
In  the  collections  of  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts  is  an  archer's 
thumb-ring  of  green  jade  with  incised  floral  design  in  gold  and  rubies, 
a  band  of  gold  encircling  each  ruby.  It  bears  no  sign  of  wear  and 
must  have  been  worn  purely  as  an  ornament  for  the  hand.  It  is 
exquisite  in  its  beauty  and  workmanship.  See  plate  III,  Fig.  5. 
The  last  two  plates  represent  archers'  rings  from  China. 


White  Jade,  Ethnological  Museum,  Leyden,  Persia 


43 


APPENDIX 


Transactions  of  the  Berlin  Society  for  Anthropology, 

Ethnology  and  Primeval  History 

Meeting  of  July  18,  1891 


(P.  670.    Paper  on  Bending  the  Bow.    M.  Felix  von  Luschan) 
(Figs.  10  and  12  are  omitted  in  the  following  extracts) 

After  considering  the  primary,  secondary,  tertiary,  Mediterranean 
and  Mongolian  methods  of  bending  (drawing)  the  bow,  and  after  con- 
sidering a  variety  of  arrangements  for  protecting  fingers,  hands  and 
arms  against  a  recoil  of  the  bowstring  the  author  returns  (p.  674)   to 

the  Mongolian  method  with  thumb  ring 
in  the  right  hand  which  it  requires,  he 
instances  such  rings  from  Syria,  Korea  and 
China  and  then  says:  It  is  very  surpris- 
ing that  we  should  also  have  knowledge  of 
such  a  ring  in  Africa.  In  the  Royal  Mus- 
eum for  Ethnology  at  Berlin  there  is  an 
iron  thumb  ring  (Fig.  7,  p.  675)  from  the 
Benue  country,  collected  by  R.  Flegel  and 
designated  by  him  as  a  bow-bending  ring. 
In  the  face  of  such  a  statement,  even  if  so  far  it  has  remained  an 
isolated  one  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  Mongolian  method  is  known 
also  in  Africa,  for  it  is  only  with  this  method  that  a  thumb  ring  can 
occur.  I,  myself,  have  a  small  ring  with  a  long  lateral  spur  (projec- 
tion) made  of  some  light-colored  oxidized  metallic  alloy  which  Ernst 
Marno  brought  from  the  Giraffe  River  and  designated  as  a  ring  for 
bending  the  bow  (Fig.  8a).    As  Marno  could  not  at  the  time  explain 


Fig.   7 


44 


to  me  how  it  was  possible  to  bend  a  bow  with  such  a  ring,  I  took  no 
further  notice  of  his  statement  and  considered  the  ring  to  be  a  knuckle- 
duster. But  there  is  in  the  Berlin  Museum,  as  I  saw  only  recently,  a 
horn  ring  shaped  quite  similarly  only  larger,  which  is  also  designated 
as  a  ring  for  bending  the  bow  (Fig.  8b)  Although  the  way  of  using 
the  ring  is  not  clear  as  yet,  nevertheless  this  furnishes  now,  after 
twenty  years,  an  entirely  unexpected  confirmation  of  Marno's  old 
statement  and  we  will  probably  be  constrained  to  assume  also  for  the 
upper  Nile  regions  the  occurrence,  an  isolated  occurrence  perhaps,  of 
the  Mongolian  method.     The  actual  manner  of  using  these  thumb- 


Fig.  8a 


Fig.  8b 


rings  with  lateral  spur  remains  occult,  just  as  it  has  to  be  made  clear 
how  in  Korea  this  diverging  form  has  there  arisen  and  maintained 
itself,  alongside  of  the  form  usual  and  typical  there.  Aside  of  the  five 
above  mentioned  methods  of  bending  the  bow,  Morse  enumerates  a 
few  others  of  less  importance  which  are  partly  only  individual  methods 
and  of  which  only  one  could  be  explained  here,  the  bending  with  both 
hands.  The  archer  Hes  on  his  back  pressing  both  feet  firmly  against 
the  bow.  I,  myself,  have  seen  Bushmen  shoot  in  this  way,  but  the 
impression  this  made  upon  me  was  rather  that  of  an  artist's  feat  (an 
exhibition  performance  than  that  of  a  typical  use.)     On  the  other 

45 


hand  I  am  today  in  the  position  to  communicate  a  hitherto  entirely 
unknown  method  of  bending  the  bow,  the  Wute  Method.  For  the 
knowledge  of  it  we  are  indebted  to  1st  Lieutenant  Morgen,  the 
dashing  and  lively  successor  of  Captain  Kund,  who  observed  this 
method  with  the  Wute  people  in  the  back  country  of  Kamerun  and 
brought  several  pieces  as  ocular  demonstration  to  Berlin.  Unlike  all 
other  people  of  whom  we  know  so  far  the  Wute  bend  the  bow  not  at 
all  with  the  fingers  but  with  the  middle  of  the  hand.     For  this  they 


Fig.  9 


use  a  ring  which  consists  as  Figure  9  shows  of  a  small  thin  piece  of 
board,  bent  like  a  bow  (of  a  necktie)  the  ends  of  which  may  be  drawn, 
more  or  less,  together  according  to  the  size  of  the  hand,  by  means  of  a 
leather  thong  (strip).  This  ring  is  worn  in  such  a  way  that  it  is  drawn 
over  the  hand  to  its  middle  with  the  closed  end  towards  the  radius  and 
the  open  end  towards  the  ulna.  The  string  of  the  bow  is  caught  and 
drawn  tight  with  the  edge  of  the  radial  side,  whilst  the  thumb  keeps 
the  arrow  in  the  desired  position. 

46 


In  succession  to  these  hand  rings  follow,  of  course,  the  West 
African  daggers  with  hollow  handles  (Figs.  10  and  11)  which  have  so 
far  become  known  to  us  (as  existing)  in  the  protectorate  of  Togo  the 
Wute  country  and  the  Benue  regions,  especially  (specifically)  from  the 
latter.  Staudinger  and  Hartert  brought  already,  1886,  a  long 
dagger  knife  (Fig.  10)  of  the  Idnd  v/liich  they  found  with  the  Kadarra 
and  Korro  tribes  where  these  knives  serve  as  well  as  a  hand  weapon 
for  defense,  as  for  the  quicker  bending  of  the  bow,  by  pressing  the 
handle  against  the  string. 

This  statement  is,  of  course,  not  quite  clear,  as  with  such  aid  one 
may  gain  rather  in  power,  but  hardly  in  quickness,  nevertheless  it 
results  without  dispute  from  this  statement,  that  de  facto  also  these 
tribes  have  the  same  manner  of  bending  the  bow,  which  since  then 


Fig.  11 


has  been  recognized  more  distinctly  a  little  farther  south  by  LiEU- 
TEN-\NT  MoRGEN.  But  the  Berlin  Ethnological  Museum  has  very 
numerous  specimens  of  quite  similar  knives  from  the  Togo  Protec- 
torate brought  thence  by  staff-physician  Dr.  Wolf  and  by  Dr. 
BuTTNER  and  to  the  latter  we  are  also  indebted  for  the  names  Ssegara 
and  Sama,  both  of  which,  as  it  seems,  are  common  in  the  Sugu  lan- 
guage, for  the  knives.  It  is  true  both  travelers  have  considered  them 
only  as  such  (knives)  and  do  not  mention  that  they  are  also  used  for 
bending  the  bow,  but  there  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  they,  just  as 
the  similar  knives  in  the  Benue  countries,  serve  both  purposes,  at  all 
events  we  have  the  specific  information  as  regards  the  knife,  (Fig.  11) 
from  the  Wute  countries,  that  it  is  also  used  for  bending  the  bow 
therefore   besides   the   above    described   wooden   middle-hard-rings, 

47 


which  serve  the  same  purpose.  To  examine  which  is  here  the  original 
and  which  the  derived  forms  would  be  a  difficult  and  perhaps  also  a 
useless  task,  at  all  events  already  the  abov^e  consideration  shows  — 
and  practical  attempt  confirms  —  that  this  method  of  bending  the 
bow,  whether  by  the  aid  of  the  wooden  hand-ring,  or  by  that  of  the 
iron  dagger-handle,  is  an  extremely  powerful  method.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  it  is  far  and  away  superior  to  every  other  method,  not  only  on 
account  of  the  ease  with  which  the  full  strength  of  the  whole  arm.  is 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  string,  but  also  on  account  of  the  extraor- 
dinary delicacy  with  which  the  arrow  is  released  at  the  decisive 
moment. 

The  enormously  powerful  effect  produced  by  this  (bending)  ring 
finds  its  counterpart  in  a  protective  apparatus  for  the  left  hand,  which 
exceeds  in  its  dimensions  ever>lhing  existing  before.  It  consists 
(Fig.  12)  of  a  strip  of  leather  tightly  fitting  the  wTist,  open  and  arranged 
for  tying  on  the  ulnar  side,  and  carrying  on  the  thumb  side  an  irreg- 
ularly conical  erection  of  10-15  cm.  high  also  made  of  string  or  leather 
(hide)  colored  black  and  generally  embellished  with  geometric  orna- 
mentations. This  peculiar  (or  peculiarly)  a  symmetrical  wTist  band 
presents  therefore  to  the  rebounding  string  two  inclined  planes  which 
completely  paralyse  even  the  hardest  blow. 

The  pursuit  of  the  subordinate  (minor)  and  apparently  unim- 
portant inquiry  as  to  the  method  of  bending  the  bow  used  by  different 
peoples  results  thus  in  the  disclosing  of  an  unexpected  manifoldness 
(variety)  and  furnishes  inducment  in  various  directions  for  further 
reflection.  The  material  collected  so  far  contains,  however,  by  far 
too  many  gaps  if  the  above  communication  concerning  the  Wute 
method  fills  one  of  these  in  a  manner  so  entirely  sui  generis,  the  other 
gaps  appear  only  the  more  lamentable.  I  may,  therefore,  be  allowed 
to  express  the  hope  that  future  travellers  will  pay  more  attention  to 
this  question  than  has  been  done  hitherto,  and  that  the  excellent, 
observation  of  Lieutenant  Morgen  will  by  no  means  remain  the 
last  one  of  its  kind. 


48 


PLATE   I 

Figure    1    White  jade,  inlaid  with  rubies  and  emeralds.    Franks' 
Coll.    Attributed  to  India. 

2  White  jade,  deeply  inlaid  with  gold.    George  C.  Stone 

Coll.     Persia. 

3  Bronze;   design  roughly  cut.    Franks'  Coll.     Bought  at 

Sm^Tna. 

4  Thin    brass,    overlapping    behind,    design    roughly    cut. 

British  Museum.    No  locality  given. 

5  White  jade,  inlaid  with  rubies  and  emeralds.    Franks'. 

Coll.  No  locality  given. 

6  Iron,   inlaid  with  copper  and  brass.    British  Museum  . 

Persia. 


PLATE   I 


I 


PLATE   II 

Figure    1     White  jade,  with  floral  design  in  slight  relief.     George  C. 
Stone  Coll.     Persia.     17th  century. 

2  White  jade.     British  Museum.     Persia. 

3  Bone.     British  Museum.     Persia. 

4  Carnelian.     British  Museum.     Persia. 

5  &  6    Carnelian.    Ashmolean  Museum,  Oxford. 

These  are  recorded  in  the  old  catalogue  as  follows: 

"  Tradescantianum,  or  Collection  of  Rarities  preserved 
at  South  Lambert,  near  London,  by  John  Tradescant, 
London.     MDCLVI." 


PLATE   II 


PLATE   III 

Figure  1  Bone,  closely  inlaid  with  minute  bits  of  brass  with  a  band 
of  larger  round  bits  of  brass.  Franks'  Coll.  Bought  at 
Smyrna. 

2  Bone.     Failed  to  record  nature  of  inlay.    British  Museum. 

Siberia? 

3  White  jade  with  slight  keel  on  back.    George  C.  Stone 

Coll. 

4  Ivory,  simple  decoration  of  circles  and  leaves.    George  C. 

Stone  Coll. 

5  Green  jade  inlaid  with  gold  and  rubies.      Boston  Museum 

of  Fine  Arts. 

6  White  jade.    George  C.  Stone  Coll, 


PLATE    III 


PLATE   IV 

Figure    1     Greenish  variegated  jade.     Peabody  Museum,  Salem. 

2  Deer  horn.    Peabody  Museum,  Salem. 

3  and  4    Deer  horn.     From  a  group  of  five  deer  horn  rings. 

Geo.  C.  Stone  Coll.    I  have  selected  the  largest  and 
smallest  to  figure. 

5  Ivory,  with  double  character  for  "joy"  in  slight  relief, 

Geo.  C.  Stone  Coll. 

6  Dark  brown  substance,  "neither  wood,  metal  or  stone." 

Bamboo  design,  slightly  etched,  silver  lined.     Geo.  C. 
Stone  Coll. 

7  Weathered  jade,  resembling  jade  from  old  tombs.     Geo.  C. 

Stone  Coll. 

8  Steatite.    Peabody  Museum,  Salem. 

9  Stone,  characters  in  ancient  form  in  slight  relief.    They 

read  "Speak  with  sincerity."     It  is  from  the  Analects  of 
Confucius,  Book  I,  Chap.  7.     Peabody  Museum,  Salem. 

10    Marble.     Peabody  Museum,  Salem. 


PLATE    IV 


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PLATE  V 

Figure    1     White  jade,  Hydra  in  slight  rehef,  flattened  on  one  side. 
Franks'  Coll. 

2  White  jade,  abruptly  flattened  on  one  side,  landscape  in 

slight  relief.    Geo.  C.  Stone  Coll. 

3  White  jade,  abruptly  flattened  on  side,  the  flat  portion 

somewhat  discolored.  The  flattened  side,  from  its 
appearance,  represents  the  original  surface  of  the  block 
of  jade  from  which  it  was  made.     Geo.  C.  Stone  Coll. 

4  Amber-colored  glass,  deep  yellow.     Abruptly  flattened  on 

one  side;  flattened  side  slightly  curved.  Peabody 
Museum,  Salem. 


PLATE    V 


yv 


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